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Josh is currently Head of Marketplace at Honee. Honee is an Australian VC backed start-up helping hair, beauty, fitness and wellness venues connect to consumers. He focuses on working with both B2B and B2C to provide actionable customer insights across Honee’s business activities. After working across marketing, sales, customer success and operations he has gained the skills to implement and improve processes to help organisations maintain a strategic edge. Josh has previously worked in the creative industries both behind the scenes and onstage before taking the leap into the world of start-ups.

In what ways do you think the role of a strategist is going to evolve/transform in the coming year/ s?

With the rate of technological growth and increased competition facing larger firms due to the ease of starting and scaling a new business as well as global threats from international players entering the Australian market the role of a strategist will be forced to evolve further. I believe this evolution should move towards education and mentorship, teaching strategic thinking and planning to every member of an organisation no matter how big or small their roles may seem.

What do you think is the most common mistake strategists are making when it comes to dealing with new technology/innovation?

Despite how advanced new technologies may seem they are still in practice not too far from the hammer or the shovel. They are merely tools used by people to obtain a desired result. Many see a new technology (blockchain is a great current example) as the means and the end rather than something used in conjunction with all the other facets of a business to achieve organisational goals.

Whats your best guess for how your industry will look like in 3 years?

We are still essentially in the proverbial dark ages of beauty and wellness meeting technology, with these business using tech as a layer on top of their usual business practices. As we have seen with the food tech sector over the last 3-5 years technology will gradually permeate the industry further and compliment sound existing strategy instead of being used to create new strategy.

How do companies build brand loyalty in today's marketplace?

As someone who works very closely with our customers there’s something simple organisations can do to build loyalty, something that I believe has been lost to a degree with the shift to ecommerce and digital marketing. That is being personal. Treating your customers like the individuals they are rather than a data point for a marketing team creates a personal connection between the customer and the organisation that is impossible with an EDM or Facebook Ad.

What are some big changes you feel need to be made to the corporate mentality in order to make them more effective at embracing innovation?

Having worked with both large organisations and start ups I feel that the corporate world needs to embrace their human capital by giving them more decision making power. The world moves so quickly these days that employees need to be able to make firm decisions without the time it takes to move decision making up and down corporate hierarchies.